Smelly socks prompt synagogue attack

A manager of a Tel Aviv synagogue was nearly stabbed over the weekend after commenting on a person's smelly socks, Israel's leading newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported Sunday.

Police received a telephone call Thursday night from a synagogue which serves evening meals to homeless and needy people every evening.

The police officers who were dispatched to the scene were told by the synagogue's manager that a person had arrived at the synagogue wearing stinking socks.

"I told him he is always welcome to come and eat with us at the synagogue, but he must change his socks," the manager said.

"It's disrespectful to come to synagogue with such smelly socks," he added.

According to the manager, the guest was irritated by the remark, grasped the manager by the neck and dragged him outside the synagogue, where he attached a knife to his throat.

The assaulter, 43-year-old Be'er Sheva resident Valerie Abramov, was arrested over the weekend and brought before the Tel Aviv Magistrates Court for a hearing on the police's request to extend his remand.

"Abramov did not stab the complainant," the defense attorney told the judge, who nonetheless decided to extend Abramov's remand by four days.